***
Well, the shounen-ai may be developing into full yaoi soon... *evil smirk*
And, ladies and gentlemen, I HAVE FINISHED THE GAME! And yes, this chapter will be the only nod to canon in this fic. I promise. And if anyone is interested in further extension of the Sorceress's Knight theory, just let me know and I'll actually write the fic I was considering. Seifer will be in it, if that's a selling point. As will Laguna.
Oh, and sorry this chapter took so long... I hit writer's block... and for anyone who's reading my RK fics, I'm horribly sorry. Those are harder to write for me at the moment.
***

The wind blew through the trees, leaves rustling in a quiet song that lent nothing but peace to the little town. It was something that had felt familiar to him every time he had come here, even in those dreams before he had any suspiscion why. He'd been born here... he'd even seen the crib he must have lived in until he could walk, a ratty old teddy bear with ears tattered as though it had been gnawed at by baby gums where teeth were just beginning to break through...
Squall shouldered his luggage, gaze cast to the ground. Winhill. Where Raine had lived, where he had been conceived and born. His hometown, of sorts... Even though he didn't remember it at all. He didn't remember anything, save little snatches of growing up in the orphanage...
Sometimes that bothered him. Not remembering his childhood, all the good things that must have happened... if anything good had happened. At all. But there were just as many times when he was grateful, knowing that there were things he was so glad he didn't remember. And there would be things in the future he would forget, things he didn't want... Maybe...
Maybe, in time, all the painful memories would be gone. He would do almost anything for that.
And yet... things had happened in the past year that he never wanted to lose.
It was more than he could handle, thinking about it. So he never did.
Hey, we're here! Zell observed brightly, halting by the little shop at the wayside. Squall blinked and leaned against the signpost, carefully setting his bags on the ground.
...So we are, he answered quietly, letting his gaze flicker up to Zell's, almost hesitant, almost shy... Things he never wanted to lose... It was undoubtable that his memories of Zell were high among those. The times he had smiled at him. The times he had touched him and hugged him. The times he had taken his hand and squeezed in the midst of battle when no one else could see. The times he had trained and fought and bled and died alongside him, but never backed away.
All those times during the long struggle against Ultimecia.
Even when he had wavered and broken under the pressure. Even when his personality took a one-eighty turn and his mind shattered to thousands of pieces, Zell had always been there. Zell had always stood beside him, no matter how he ignored him in favor of Rinoa.
...Rinoa...
It still didn't make sense to him... Seifer had said it with such a smug glint in his eye, leaning back in his chair and smirking...
Of course you don't actually love her! God, you always were a frickin' idiot. Every sorceress has a knight who adopts to their whims. You were just hers. And now that the problem's dealt with, you're gonna go back t' normal. I did. Now it's your turn.
 He'd been so angry then. He had been, he truly had been, and yet... Now, it was more of a relief to know there was an explanation. It had been so sudden, after all... It wasn't that he hated Rinoa, he never really had. She... she just annoyed him. Irritated him. Was a never-ending source of stress and frustration. She wanted to be protected. Specifically, protected by him. And... it had never been something he'd felt as though he could do. And she had merely unsettled him, like all girls like that did. But... when she had fallen into the coma...
He'd become someone he hardly recognized. Someone he...

Squall blinked out of his stupor into Zell's bright cerulean eyes, then jumped back in surprise. I-I was just... He trailed off, not sure what he had been thinking about anymore.
Zell smiled at him warmly, then clapped one hand onto his shoulder. Let's go property scouting! the blond said cheerily. If we're gonna get you a vacation house... There's really no vacant houses here that are nice enough. I remember from when we were here playin' with the Chicobos last year. An' you're rich enough, with all your wages you don't spend. We could build you one, if you wanna...
Squall cocked his head, then considered that. A house, built to his wants and expectations, without the shadows of past tenants... Something that was fresh and new, just his... It would be hard, to build a stable house without any experience, but... Maybe they could get some books somewhere, so they wouldn't have to hire a construction company, and if it was just for them, it wouldn't have to be very big...
Zell was quiet during his musings, but began shifting impatiently on the balls of his feet after only a few minutes of silence. Squall steadfastly ignored him, sketching some form of a rough plan in his mind. A bathroom, of course, and a bedroom... Two bedrooms? No, that would be a rather puritan waste of space. It wasn't as though he didn't know Zell, didn't trust him... They could easily share a room. It could even be a small room. One bed, even, if-
Squall blinked out of that thought abruptly, cheeks burning. He coughed quietly and looked down at the ground, scuffing one boot heel over the hard-packed dirt ground. The last thing he needed was to attract Zell's attention, have the blond see him blushing, then have to explain why, even when he wasn't sure why... It was only... During the war against Ultimecia, though most often in the early days, there had been times where they had had to share as little as a single sleeping bag in a tent small enough to fit beneath one tree, with at least two others in there with them. It seemed like sharing a room or a bed now would be nothing at all to worry either of them.
But that had been before...
Zell murmured again, this time softer, gentler. Squall blinked up from the ground, then jumped as one gloved hand settled onto his jaw, fingers squeezing his chin a little. He gazed down into his bright eyes with a hesitant curiousity, not taking a single step back even though he could feel himself begin to quiver a little. The warmth that radiated from both his eyes and his touch was almost too comfortable, too intimate to bear...
We're gonna do this together, right?
The question was so simple, but the uncertain cast of his features and the hopeful light that glimmered deep in fathomless blue indicated otherwise. Zell had always been like that... loading simple phrases with meaning that could lead to either a glowing smile or that dark silence and withdrawal, depending on whatever offhand response he might get... Anyone who thought the blond was as freewheeling as he first appeared was deluded. But it was an illusion Zell spread of his own free will.
And Squall supposed that he had no place telling people to be themselves.
Sometimes a facade was just necessary.
And he had believed it too, for a while, at least. But now... he'd learned a while ago that it was worth the time to figure out what Zell was really talking about. And if he read him right...
He took a deep breath, considering his answer carefully. It was one of the SeeD principles, after all, and far be it from him to disobey something he had been taught as truth since childhood. This would, after all, commit himself to actually following through... and it wasn't like a contract, that had set terms and a time to expire and couldn't be broken.
This was life.
he managed to whisper, lips twitching, wanting to smile... He wanted to do this with Zell. He wanted to spend his vacation with Zell. He wanted to build a little house in Winhill with Zell and live in it with Zell and decorate it with Zell and eat in it and and relax in it and sleep in it with Zell. He wanted to... He wanted to... He wanted to...
He wanted to be with Zell as much as possible. And that was simple enough, wasn't it?...
Zell whispered, grinning like an idiot. I wanna do this together...
Squall only shivered when he kissed him, staying still and allowing Zell to slide an arm around his thin waist and hold him close. He... he felt nice... all tight muscle and warm skin, arms strong and yet gentle where they held him so tightly...
What was this feeling...
With a little shudder, Squall leaned closer to him, deliciously free and terrified all at the same time. Had he thought this through...? Maybe it was a bad idea. It had to be a bad idea. He was supposed to think things over carefully before he entered a relationship.
And yet...
He wanted to do this together...